Venture Capital, Angel Finance and Equity Investment

Whether you are an investor wanting to act on an investment opportunity, or a business looking to expand using external funding, you want legal advisors with the commercial and legal expertise to support you and your business throughout the funding process.

How can Thorntons help?

At Thorntons, our private equity experts work with both companies and investors to achieve cost-effective investments at all stages of the funding cycle by individuals, angel networks and venture capital funds. We appreciate that our clients value pragmatic and relevant advice, and we use our experience to try and keep the investment process as straightforward and undaunting as possible.

For the company looking for investment, we can take you through the whole process. This includes making your company ‘investor ready’, advising on the proposed investment, negotiating the investment documents (such as the investment and shareholder agreements), advising on subsequent financing rounds, putting into place options and other incentives for management shareholders, through to the exiting of investor shareholders. We have acted for many companies looking for funding, ranging from start-ups and university spin-outs to large multinationals, and the team has particular expertise in the healthcare, golf and leisure, technology and renewables sectors.

For the investor, our lawyers’ experience and practical approach to the investment process can assist you in procuring investment into target companies in an efficient manner, whilst focussing on those issues of commercial importance to you. The team acts for a large number of high-net-worth individuals looking to invest, working with them on all aspects of ‘angel’ investment, from setting up an angel syndicate to carrying out due diligence on potential investment and drafting the necessary investment documentation.

We have lawyers dual-qualified in both Scots and English law, and are happy to act in relation to investments being made into English companies or investments being made by investors under English law.

Thorntons is very pleased to have been recognised as a corporate partner by LINC Scotland, the national association for business angels in Scotland. We are happy to refer to LINC any companies looking for investment, or any person interested in joining an angel investment syndicate, and are always interested to hear from anyone looking to make equity investments.